Wayne's version of Freeman tromps through the halls of Black Mesa with his cavalcade of fools, turning the entire self-serious narrative of Half-Life on its head. With violent props, fantastical environments, and stockpiles of worldbuilding at their disposal, there was no limit to the kinds of stories late '90s and early '00s kids could unfold through a then-modern first-person shooter. The veritable Cambrian explosion of modding communities online would eventually offer these player-actors as many or more means of self-expression as could be found in contemporary MMORPGs. It's hard to trace the precise origins of this phenomenon, but it's easy to find first-hand accounts of it in games like Warcraft, Jedi Knight/Outcast, Half-Life, and many others. Bored youths everywhere were happy to fill that time with vibrant interpretations of in-universe lore spun from their imaginations. In these genres, many early server-based multiplayer titles offered plenty of downtime between skirmishes. Then, strangely enough, the pastime started making the move to first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. These were often free-to-play and easily ran on even the worst 56k connections prior to widespread broadband adoption.
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